Goya y Lucientes, Francisco de

Fuendetodos, Zaragoza, 1746 - Burdeos (Francia), 1828

Boys playing at Soldiers

1779. Oil on canvas, 146 x 94 cm.

This cartoon for an over-door tapestry depicts boys playing at soldiers, marching with their rifles on their shoulders or playing the drum. The principal boy’s lively, martial air and amusingly childlike pride as he looks out at the viewer make this one of Goya’s finest depictions of childhood. Childhood was one of the subjects that most interested Goya and in many of his scenes the children represent different social types: soldiers, majos, little aristocrats and others. This is one of a series of tapestries cartoons (P00779-P00784) intended for the bedroom of the Prince and Princess of Asturias (the future Carlos IV and his wife Maria Luisa de Parma) at the El Pardo Palace. Access to the series of tapestry cartoons: The Fair in Madrid (P00779); The Pottery Vendor (P00780); The Military Man and the Lady (P00781); The Haw Seller (P00782); Boys playing at Soldiers (P00783); The Game of Pelota (P00784).